Since the Coronavirus Pandemic came about, I have been struggling with my business. I thought to not sell things until the pandemic was over. I thought that what I was doing wasn’t what I was supposed to be doing. I thought I wasn’t “successful” if I wasn’t churning out books left and right like some of my author friends are.

That, in turn, led me to think I wasn’t being successful at life. [I had, for some reason, thought that success (or lack thereof) in business equated the same to success in life.] I thought I was a failure. I have thought that many times over the weeks the Coronavirus Pandemic has wreaked havoc on the world.

Have you thought that you weren’t being “successful” in life? You haven’t gotten to where you want to be in life, so you think that you’re a failure?

Success comes in many different ways. Maybe you want to be a lawyer. Maybe you want to be a teacher. Maybe you want to be a doctor.

For me, at the age of ten, I wanted to publish a book, but wasn’t sure how I was going to go about that. At the time, I thought that I had to be represented by an agent and go up in front of a publishing company like Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, or Simon & Schuster.

But, in this age of technology, I don’t have to pursue a traditional publishing contract to become a published author; I can publish my own book (and retain all of the royalties, be in charge of the price of the book as well as the steps in the book production process)—which is something that cannot be said if you go with any of the traditional publishers I mentioned previously. Nothing against them or people that go with a traditional publisher (I know there are some “perks” to that as well, like being associated with a well-known, established brand).

With self-publishing my book, I started my own business to publish the books under (called Inbetween Publishing) and became a published author, so I accomplished two of my biggest goals that I’ve had since I was a child: become a published author and run my own business. Being the publisher of my books means that I am in charge of each stage of the publishing process. I am the one who has to market the books (which, honestly, no matter which route I go, I would have had to market the book myself anyway). So, in the end, I ultimately went with self-publishing, and I couldn’t be happier.

I first started my business as a way to publish my own books. At the time of starting the company, I didn’t think that helping people with their own books, or their own websites, would be in the scope of what I do in my business. That was back in 2018. Now, I’m beginning to expand my company to be a publishing company that not only publishes my books, but helps others publish their own books.

I’m also republishing my memoir, My Disability Doesn’t Define Me, as a second edition that is coming out in the last quarter of 2020, as well as venturing into fiction!

There are many different paths to success. It just depends on what you want to do in your life. Just don’t forget to count the little success, too, like putting a smile on someone’s face. When you can brighten someone’s day, yours is always a success.

What do you count as a success in your life? Let me know in the comments!

If you’d like to see my three pillars for success, please pre-order the book I’m a contributor to called The Success Code. It will be released on August 4, 2020! When you read it, please let me know what you think of it (also in the comments)!

Here’s the cover!

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